


dimples should not be such a turn on

by hanibeeee



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: But mostly fluff, Fluff, HIGH KEY pining, Keith is a Mess, M/M, One-Shot, PINING KEITH, anyway..enjoy i guess hope it isn't complete garbage, it's there, lance is a pretty boy, mild klangst, new and improved with, pining lance, this is my first fanfic ever??? wild, trigger warning for blood! i mean it's nothing graphic and it's super brief but
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-12
Updated: 2017-07-12
Packaged: 2018-12-01 01:56:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,235
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11476164
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hanibeeee/pseuds/hanibeeee
Summary: It starts like this: it starts with two boys, looking up at the chasm of space above their heads. It starts with racing hearts and words sharp as elbows. For Lance, maybe it starts with snide comments . But for Keith? For Keith, it all starts with those dimples in his teammate's smile, and that something - that inexplicable something - that seemed to thrum behind his bared teeth.





	1. Chapter 1

Lance has dimples when he smiles.  
  
It's the first thing Keith notices about him at the Garrison, followed closely by 'oh no he's hot'. But yes. Lance has dimples. They're asymmetrical, sitting crooked on the apples of his cheeks - not at all like the ones you see in the movies.  
  
But Keith thinks they make him look real. Glowing with life and light and warmth, Lance seems ethereal at times, like an angel. Those dimples...they ground Keith, remind him that Lance is flesh and bone and soft muscles and rich, brown skin.  
  
And, yeah, Keith might have a bit of a problem.  
  
Because Lance is obnoxious. He's a bonehead, he's stubborn, he's arrogant, and he can't keep his mouth shut. But when he flashes that lopsided grin, it's like something wonderful and intangible and magic and Keith is drawn like an unsuspecting moth to a blinding, endless light.  
  
So, it starts like this: it starts with two boys, looking up at the chasm of space above their heads. It starts with racing hearts and words sharp as elbows. For Lance, maybe it starts with snide comments . But for Keith? For Keith, it all starts with those dimples in his teammate's smile, and that something - that inexplicable something - that seemed to thrum behind his bared teeth. 

  


\----

  


Keith definitely has a problem. Because...because he sees Lance after months, in a tent, with his brother, and Lance...is not smiling. He's glaring.  
  
He's glaring at Keith. And taunting, and teasing - pulling at these tentative cords of their odd relationship in all the wrong ways.  
  
And Keith feels his defense mechanisms revving like a motorcycle, and he tells Lance he doesn't remember him. Because, like a motorcycle, his brain is half for show and half for functionality. Some part of him withers at the oh-so-brief flash of hurt in Lance's eyes. Yes, he remembers, Lance is a whole lot more than a pretty face. The boy's emotions project through a megaphone at all times. And right now? Lance is blasting out hatred.  
  
If this boy is the summer, he's not just the sunlight - he's the heat, he's rising tempers and high tensions.  
  
And, to heck with it, Keith decides he doesn't care how cute the guy's dimples are - he's done. So he shoves out the pictures of those smiles and he glares back. 

  


\----

  


Later, when Lance flashes a grin at Allura for the first time, peering at her through short, thick lashes, Keith has to gnash his teeth together to keep from screaming at how fake it looks. When Lance smiles at Allura, it isn't raw; it's practiced, a peacock smile with feathers to impress.  
(The worst part, he thinks to himself later as a pair of blue eyes drifts back into his mind, is that Lance looks beautiful anyway).

  


\----

  


It had been an easy enough mission. An isolated Galra ship carrying a few prisoners. Not too many soldiers on deck. It looked simple enough - so simple that Shiro only sends Lance and Keith, set on building a better bond between the two paladins.  
  
It looked simple enough, until the alarms went off and two large ships uncloaked themselves behind the tiny spacecraft.  
  
Until the squadron of Galra soldiers ran into the room, where Lance and Keith were still struggling to free all the prisoners.  
  
Until Lance's promise to cover Keith and the prisoners morphed from strategy to literal action.  
  
Keith hears a blaster fire, and a feeling in his gut compels him to turn. He watches Lance jump to intercept the shot, and his heart barrels into his throat, warbling the cry that rips through the air. He sees red bloom on Lance's arm, in his vision...on the floor. Lance has taken down the last of the squadron, though more soldiers are undoubtedly on their way.  
  
Keith gnashes his teeth as they board their lions and zoom off. 

  


\----

  


"I don't see the problem." Lance is furrowing his brows like he always does in his stubborn moods. "We rescued the prisoners, took care of the ships, and got out alive."  
  
Keith's gaze flicks to the bandage wrapped around Lance's forearm. He takes a step forward and pushes away the wispy thoughts that always apparate when he's in close proximity with the blue paladin. "The problem," he growls, "is that you could've died. It was reckless."  
  
"That's rich, coming from you." Lance sneers. His features are pulled tight, and he's growing snippy. Keith can practically see the frayed end of the dynamite fuse smoldering with the beginnings of a fire.  
  
He feels anger, unrestrained, relentless, irrational, surge in his stomach, and before he knows it, he's shoving Lance. "Don't act so blasé about this. You have a duty to fulfill as blue paladin. You have a duty to Voltron. You have a duty to your family-"  
  
He feels slender hands grabbing his jacket and shoving him back, hard. Lance's eyes are flinty when he looks at Keith. "Don't you talk about my family-"  
"-I'll stop when you stop putting your life in-"  
  
"-like you know about them." Lance cuts him off. At the blue paladin's uncharacteristically serious voice, Keith tries to reel his temper back in. Some part of his mind is screaming that his concern isn't manifesting in the way it should. "I spend every second on this ship thinking about them, missing them, loving them. I'm doing this for them. So don't talk about my family when you don't even know what it's like to have one."  
  
Keith stills at the words. Lance's hard expression cracks, and Keith thinks he might say something, but he doesn't give him the chance. Keith ignores the regret in Lance's eyes and the warmth in his skin and the bloodstains on his bandage and walks out of the room. 

  


\----

  


The problem is, the castle isn't like the Garrison. Keith can't train alone all the time, not if the paladins are going to get any better at operating as one. He can't just feign ignorance or sit far away from Lance during lunch or look through him like he's invisible.  
  
Everything is so close proximity.  
  
Honestly? It's hard to build walls between professional and personal life when your teammates are risking their lives for you day after day as you do the same for them.  
  
And let's be honest here; Lance has never been easy to ignore. Something about him pulls Keith in - he takes the bait for argument time after time, finds himself drawn to their verbal spars as he craves some kind of interaction. Lance is boisterous, he's demanding, he's arrogant, he's - vivacious, loving, brave, and heck, Keith has a major problem.  
  
But, no. Keith has drawn the line. He needs to stop toeing it and take a step back into the safe zone before something pushes him over.  
  
He can see it in Lance's eyes - this frustration, as though Keith's very existence drives him up the walls. Any efforts at...at friendship would doubtless be unwanted. 

  


\----

  


"Are you okay?" He hears the words come out before he registers that he spoke them, but he can't bring himself to care. Lance looks tired and in pain, but he seems to be holding up well considering the earlier near-death experience.  
  
Keith settles in next to him and waits for the inevitable snide comment about how he was "just fine, in more ways than one", but when nothing comes, he looks up and feels his stomach tumble over itself for a fraction of a second.  
Lance is smiling. "We did it. We are a good team."  
  
And Keith feels his lips tugging up in earnest, because there it is. That love and light...painted across Lance's features like he's a work of art. But it's all gentler somehow. The light isn't blinding, nor the love overpowering. There is a firmness to the feeling that is all resolve and no aggression.  
  
They grin at each other for a few more precious seconds, two boys bearing the universe on their shoulders, and see stars all around themselves.  
  
And when Keith catches Lance's eye the next morning, the blue paladin is smiling at him like not even the world could hold him back.


	2. Chapter 2

With his gorgeous eyes and his reckless grins, Lance really should’ve seen it coming. Keith Kogane was too easy to fall for.

But sometimes, you don’t realize you’re falling until you land, until you can feel the ground under your feet and know in the pit of your stomach - _this is home._

—

The first time Lance bumps into him, he doesn’t take notice of his lingering eyes or dusted-pink cheeks. He’s too wrapped up in a rather energetic conversation with Hunk. It isn’t until he hears the sound of books hitting the ground that he turns, ready to apologize and lend a hand.

He sees black on black and atrocious looking fingerless gloves, and bites back a laugh - until his eyes reach his face. Whoever this kid is, he’s new - and gorgeous. They make eye contact for a short, inexplicably weighty second, and Lance allows his heart to think - _perhaps_ -

But something in the mystery boy’s expression shifts, and he’s gathering his books himself, turning swiftly and stalking away. The air settles and Lance can breathe again.

(It doesn’t relieve him nearly as much as it should.)

“Huh. Touchy guy. You know him?” Hunk hovers a few feet ahead of Lance, waiting for his friend to unfreeze.

Lance shakes himself out of it and catches up to Hunk. “Nah. Probably no one important.”

—

Lance hears about the new kid climbing the ranks a week later. “He came out of nowhere,” he hears a girl in his calculus class whisper to her friend. “ _Keith Kogane._ Must be some kind of prodigy.”

Some part of Lance reaches out and grabs onto that name, stores it, keeps it tucked somewhere inside his heart. _No one important._

—

Lance watches Keith’s name climb the list of ranks, and he plunges himself into his schoolwork more than ever before.

Lance has always been a good student - he and his family had sacrificed too much to waste the opportunity of an education at the Garrison. But now, there’s some kind of spark in him, an urge to match Keith - to be able to look him in the eye on a level playing field.

 _Equal_ , his head whispers. _Worthy_ , his heart insists.

—

“It’s garbage!” Lance slams his tray down on the lunch table and takes a seat, ignoring Pidge’s raised eyebrows. “This guy shows up out of nowhere and works his way to the top in two weeks? I’ve been working myself into the astral plane and I’m stuck in the same place. This is rigged.”

Hunk bites his lip and puts his hand on Lance’s shoulder. “You’re top of your class, Lance.” He reminds him softly.

“Yeah, king of the cargo pilots,” Lance spits out. _Not enough. Not yet._

He spots Keith darting out of the lunchroom, apple clutched tightly in his hand. “Look at him. Too high and mighty to bother eating with the rest of us. Who is this guy anyway?”

Hunk’s hand drops from his shoulder. He can sense his disappointment in the same way he senses Pidge’s careful gaze locked onto him. “What?” he snaps.

There’s a stretch of silence before Pidge speaks up, shrugging simply. “Nothing, Lance. You’ve gotta figure this one out yourself.”

—

He sees Keith in the halls sometimes, in-between classes, and the strange, fleeting expression he gives Lance only fans the flames that seem to be growing inside him.

He’s going to make sure that one day, Keith won’t be able to take those eyes away from him.

—

Lance sees, rather than hears about, Keith leaving the Garrison.

He watches a red motorcycle disappear into a hazy horizon through his window, and wonders at the fog that seems to settle over and blur his emotions.

Wonders at why, even as he speeds further and further away from Lance, Keith’s presence remains.

—

Keith’s name may be absent from the ranking list, but when Lance looks up at his own name, listed for the first time under the fighter pilots section, he can see it hanging there like a shadow.

He’s finally where he wants to be - so why does he feel so unsatisfied?

—

Seeing Keith again is like being blindfolded and doused with a bucket of ice water.

Something that had been put to rest inside Lance the day he watched that motorcycle zoom away rears its head and he is suddenly more alive than he’s been in months. He ignores Hunk’s yelp, blinds himself to everything but that stupid haircut, and feels his legs propelling _him_ forward, towards danger, towards risk, towards him.

(Maybe that’s when some small part of himself begins to realize that he might be in trouble.)

—

The problem with realizing you have a crush on your rival is that...you have a crush on your _rival_.

Lance has no clue how to deal with this revelation, especially when Keith is giving him this _look_ , like he’s just a fly buzzing around his head. Especially when Keith doesn’t even spare him _that_ much, just walking past him without a second glance.

 _Look at me_ , he whispers, poking at Keith’s sore spots. _Look at me_ , he urges, batting his eyes at Allura. _Look at me, look at me, look..._

Keith doesn’t look.

—

“You know, psychology has a name for this kind of behavior,” Hunk says one day. He’s crossing his arms while he watches Lance engage in his latest hobby - glaring at Keith from a distance. “It’s called reaction formation, and it actually signals a serious inability to accept one’s true feelings.”

Lance fixes Hunk with a flat look. “Okay, Freud. Thanks for that session.”

Hunk shakes his head. “Anytime,” he huffs softly. It’s the last time he tries to intervene.

—

Lance was 5 when he jumped in a river to save a drowning kitten. He didn’t know how to swim.

When he was 8, he took the blame for shattering a precious vase away from his younger sisters without batting an eye.

At age 15, Lance gave up studying the stars to take on a job and help the family. He didn’t let himself truly dream again until a certain dark eyed fighter pilot traipsed into his life.

The point is, Lance has always been needlessly self sacrificing. It doesn’t come from insecurity or a desire for attention - it’s just an instinctual need to give all that he can. And more so, Lance would do _anything_ for his family.

So, when he sees the Galran soldier taking aim at Keith, he doesn’t see a choice, not really. He just does what he can do best - protect. The gash in his arm doesn’t shake his aim as he takes down the rest of the soldiers.

The adrenaline coursing through his veins keeps the pain at bay. It blocks him from seeing Keith’s hard expression or feeling the coming storm as he sprints back to Blue.

—

When he sees Keith after the mission, he’s looking at the bandage on Lance’s arm. He steps forward, but whatever butterflies appear in Lance’s stomach die at his teammate’s stormy expression. "The problem," Keith growls, "is that you could've died. It was reckless."

Something in Lance feels like it is standing on its last leg, a sliver of control being rapidly burned to ashes. He’s teetering on the edge of an abyss, looking forward. He barely registers his own voice sneering, “That’s rich, coming from you.”

Keith is touching him, snapping at him, pushing him too far in the wrong direction. Most of the words don’t process in his mind - he is too busy clinging to the tightrope he’s trapped on.

Lance hears the words “duty” and “family” and the last of his control is engulfed in flames. He feels his hands shaking at his sides, wants to grab Keith by the shoulders and shake him, wants to scream, “ _YOU’RE my family, too_.” He reaches for Keith’s jacket, tries to pull him closer, reassure him, kiss him - but it’s too late.

He feels tears burning at the back of his eyes. He feels the air, hot and heavy, pressing on his neck and cheeks. He feels a wave inside himself that has been building for months, promising destruction. He feels all this, and he pushes back. “So don't talk about my family when you don't even know what it's like to have one."

The wave crashes on the shore, and everything shatters amidst the grains of sand, too small to be picked up again. He reaches out, but his fingers graze an empty space. Keith is gone.

He pulls his outstretched hand to his chest and sits down.

—

Sometimes, you don’t know you’re falling until you land, until you hear something buried deep inside yourself crack at the impact.

Sometimes, you don’t know you’re falling until it’s too late.

—

The thing is, his whole life, Lance didn’t know what he was looking for. He spent his nights staring at the stars, searching for some sign of his destiny written in the constellations.

“Pah! Destiny?” His older sister would click her tongue. “Don’t talk like that, Lance. You make your own path in this world, understand? No one else.”

But Lance didn’t know where he wanted to go. So, he saved up to follow the stars to the Garrison, lived happily, found something he cared about - yet, the aimlessness lingered.

When Keith showed up, Lance found a renewed sense of purpose. He had a goal, and he put all his effort into achieving it. He thought he was at last fulfilling his destiny - _Lance McClain, world’s best pilot._

The thing is, Lance didn’t see what he was really chasing - not even when he ran after him on that night in the desert, not even when he followed him to new galaxies, not even when he charged into a bullet for him.

Not until he lost him.

—

“Are you okay?"

Lance looks up at the sound of Keith’s weary voice. He remembers the last time they really spoke, and thinks ‘ _Not really_ ’. But, then he sees Keith’s hesitant smile last week over dinner, hears his warm “nice shot, buddy” over the comm link on a recent mission. He watches the red paladin sit down next to him and something in his stomach unfurls. And he hopes.

The two paladins sit in companionable silence, shoulders brushing. They look at each other eye to eye, warrior to warrior, boy to boy - and they understand.

"We did it.” Lance says, and he is immediately overwhelmed with the peace of finally speaking his mind. “We are a good team."

Keith’s responding smile, Lance thinks, is like spring - budding life, morning dew, and melted snow soaking unkempt lawns. It‘s slow healing and a fresh start.

Lance grabs on tight to this fragile, new bond with both hands and lets himself dream.

—

When Lance sees Keith the next morning, he smiles.

He thinks: they are in uncharted space, light years away from anything they know.

He thinks: space starts to look less beautiful when you find yourself stranded without a return date.

He thinks: with each day it grows harder to understand what once drew him to the stars, but with Keith in the room, he remembers.

He looks at Keith, eye to eye, and he thinks: _this is home_.

**Author's Note:**

> asdgsjfhjsb okay so i guess this is...my first fanfic? wild i've been reading fic for like 6 years now and yet...  
> anyway take this i guess. let me know if you guys think a second part would be good? like the same events but lance's POV? cause let's be real keith ain't the only one pining here  
> bunches of thanks to my friendo @lillilgirl on tumblr for helping me pick a title cause lort am i bad at it  
> also LOTS OF THANKS to my best bud frigid for being my beta. you can find her on tumblr (@frigidlyauthorial) and here (Writeous) and man is she a good writer so check out her stuff!


End file.
